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South Cariboo Recreation Centre expansion proposal open houses begin

Residents divided on issue of proposed rec centre
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Community members gathered in Forest Grove on Monday to learn more and give their opinion on the South Cariboo Recreation Centre Expansion. Tara Sprickerhoff photo.

The first of a series of community consultations regarding the expansion of the South Cariboo Recreation Centre took place in Forest Grove on Feb. 25.

The Open Houses are arranged to give residents within the South Cariboo recreation area more information about the proposed expansion, as well as gauge the thoughts of local residents.

Following the open houses, the expansion working group will collate the results from the open houses, online surveys, meetings from stakeholder groups around the community, information booths at Save-On-Foods, Safeway and Peter Skene Ogden Secondary and present the information to the South Cariboo Joint Committee, who will decide whether or not to move to a referendum.

The referendum will ask the community to give the Cariboo Regional District the authority to borrow $10 million for the project, the total estimated cost of which is currently set at $14.6 million. The other $4.6 million would come from grants and corporate sponsorship. The cost to residents would work out to approximately $65 per $100,000 in residential taxes.

If approved by the joint committee, the vote would happen in June of this year.

“We want more than a 51 percent win,” says co-chair of the working group Margo Wagner.

“If the feedback is an overwhelming ‘no we’re not interested’ then I think we have that conversation,” she said, about whether or not the referendum would go forward.

While she hasn’t attended the stakeholder meetings that have happened in previous days, she says she has heard that so far the response seems positive, particularly when people are able to ask their questions and have a conversation about it.

“I’m hoping that people will take the time to come or fill out a survey,” says Wagner. “We are hoping that we will have a good dialogue and if people want it they will vote for it and if they don’t want it they won’t vote fore it.”

At the meeting in Forest Grove, opinions ranged from being totally against the recreation centre concept, to being totally for it, while others fell somewhere in between.

Tim Drager says that, while he hasn’t made up his mind yet, he’s leaning towards being for the recreation centre.

“This isn’t the only meeting I’m coming to. I want to go to at least one other meeting to hear from the people that have been here longer than me and hear their opinions on this.”

Drager said he moved to the area two years ago with his wife after they retired.

He agreed with a point Wagner brought up during the discussion: having a recreation centre will attract young professionals to the community, or help keep them here. Young professionals like doctors, are badly needed to help support the elderly population in the community, Wagner says.

“You have to have this to bring more people in and as long as the community grows slow and steady — you don’t want stagnation — then all of the services everybody wants will eventually be provided,” he says.

“I know that for the community to get doctors and all of that to come to a smaller community you have to have people move into the community and pay taxes so this is a huge improvement to a community, not only for what it is offering but also for year round. That’s the key. It’s year-round.”

His main concern, he says, are contingency plans for if costs rise with the cost of construction.

His brother James, however, who has lived in the area for much of his life, has a very different opinion.

“It’s an error.”

He doesn’t buy the argument that a rec centre - and not a pool - will attract young people to the area.

“The old folks that are here, do not want to pay 3-6 dollars to walk in a circle if they think those people are coming to the Cariboo they are wrong. If they are going to move here they are wrong, you are not going to move here alone because we don’t have the hospital, we don’t have the infrastructure to handle it.”

He also says he doesn’t trust the numbers put in front of them, namely the $150,000 in maintenance costs per year. The estimate is based off of what the CRD expects the facility to cost to run, plus a “conservative estimate” of what they expect to make in revenue each year. James says the idea of “maybe” is not okay to him.

“This town doesn’t have that money. It isn’t there. This town is done,” he says.

Micah Todd, 34, represented one of the younger voices in the room. He was firmly for the rec centre.

“I want to go all the way.”

He says the plan to build a rec centre could impact his choice to buy and renovate future properties for renters, or go somewhere where there is stuff to do.

He says the opportunity in the recreation centre would catch people leaving the Lower Mainland who might go elsewhere otherwise.

“If we have something,they’lll go, ‘well my house costs 150,000 less here, maybe there is a little less to do but there is still something and the summers here, the summers are beautiful up here.”

He says while the outdoor recreation opportunities are endless, there is more needed at an affordable level.

“If you want to go quadding or skidooing thats fine, but you gotta have $15 to $20 grand to do that.”

As for the money, he says no problem.

“Let’s come together as a community.”

The next open houses will take place March 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the 108 Mile Community Hall, March 8, at 6:30 p.m. at the Lone Butte Community Hall, and March 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the 100 Mile House Community Hall.

If you can’t make it, you can fill out a survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MRHHZD6 or find more information at www.cariboord.bc.ca.

What you need to know:

Design:

• The design of the building would include a second-floor walking track, basketball-size gymnasium, and turf field

• It would be built over the current site of the Stan Halcro Arena and connected to the current arena

• Would include integrated lobby space and elevator

Cost:

• $14.6 million of which $10 million would be borrowed by the CRD and $4.6 million would be found through grants or sponsorship.

• Any increase in cost would have to be covered by grant or donations. $10 million is the maximum the CRD could borrow, if approved by referendum.

• This works out to an increase of approximately $65 per $100,000 in residential taxes

• Annual operating costs estimated to be around $150,000 per year

Comparison to a pool

• The total price of an aquatic centre would cost $18.3 million

• Annual operating costs are estimated to be around $600,000 per year

• On operating costs alone, the increase in taxation would work out to approximately $45 per 100,000 in residential tax, compared with $11.25 in income tax for the rec centre

Cost to you

• The centre would cost approximately $3-$6 per drop-in fees and $50-$100 per hour to rent the facility